Chapter Text
Just as Rin opened the door on the driver’s side, it began to rain.
Standing up out of the car, one of the first droplets fell on his thick maroon hair, dripping down onto his cheek. He glared up at the inky night sky in annoyance as more droplets fell.
“Of all the times it could start fucking raining…”
“It won’t matter once we’re inside,” Haru reminded him. “The targets are all trapped indoors, remember?”
Rin turned his head to see his boyfriend shuffling out of the passenger's seat and quietly slipping out beside him, moving as seamlessly as water, like he always did.
“‘Course I remember,” Rin grumbled bashfully, running a hand through the back of his damp hair. “It’d be impossible to forget, with how much Pops drilled it into our heads.”
Rin cringed at the memory of the past few days being spent getting ruthlessly lectured over the procedure of the job by his father, cooped up in his stuffy office with no way to escape.
“Us? I think it was mostly you, Rin.” There was a tiny teasing note to Haru’s voice, a rarity that made Rin’s heart flutter.
Rin couldn’t resist a sideways smirk at his boyfriend. “How ballsy of you, teasing the boss’ son like that.”
Haru closed the door of the black Corolla quietly, locking it and returning Rin’s smirk with a small, impish smile. “Everybody knows he likes me more than you.”
Rin gave a toothy chuckle at his remark. “Shit, no question there. You’ve always been my old man’s favorite.”
His pale red gaze turned to the side self-consciously for a moment, the humor in their banter fading abruptly.
“That’s not true,” Haru said quickly, giving a small frown of concern as he noticed Rin’s sudden shift in demeanor.
Rin met his boyfriend’s earnest blue gaze, the mesmerizing shade of blue he had been in love with for as long as he could remember.
“You’re his son.” Haru reminded him gently. “There’s no replacing you.”
“Ahh…” Rin felt a heat gathering in his chest, masking the feeling by bumping Haru’s shoulder with his teasingly.
“Don’t get all soppy now, idiot.” He chided. “Or do you need a lecture about the job?”
“Hmph. Fair enough,” Haru huffed, a little exasperatedly. He slipped past Rin and peered into the darkness ahead of them.
“We should get going.” He looked at his boyfriend over his shoulder. “Don’t forget anything in the car.”
“I’m not that careless, y’know,” Rin grumbled, and yet he padded around his hips just to be sure. He could feel the shape of his familiar machine pistol in its concealed holster near his abdomen, as well as everything else he needed.
He took a breath sharply through his canid teeth and nodded at Haru. “You ready, Haru?”
Haru nodded back at him, beautiful blue eyes glinting with determination in the darkness.
“I’m ready.”
The pair advanced past their concealed vehicle, on a darkened path under the shadow of a line of long-abandoned buildings. Rin could see Haru eyeing the towering shapes above him as if they themselves could attack.
He resisted the urge to giggle. His boyfriend was always so overly-cautious, and so stubborn towards Rin’s attempts to loosen him up, a battle between them persisting since childhood.
Rin wasn’t foolish enough to think their stations in life didn’t require any sort of caution, but Haru was something else entirely.
Still, Haru’s boundless wariness had saved Rin’s arse more times than he’d like to admit, and Rin couldn’t deny that cool demeanor was one of the things he loved most about him.
Staring dotingly at Haru from behind, Rin continued to follow him on the dark and beaten gravel path.
Haru had memorized the route long before they had even set off on their mission, and even though Rin would be quick to deny it, he had completely forgotten where to go.
Continuing to follow behind Haru closely, Rin smirked in amusement at the way his boyfriend’s gaze flickered from side to side, as if he were anticipating an ambush.
Rin quickened his pace until he was falling into step beside him and bounced his hip playfully against Haru’s own, causing the keys on his sleek waistbelt to jingle.
“Don’t be so tense, Haru.” He teased gently. “It gives you such a scary look on your face.”
Haru cast him a disapproving sideways glance. “We’re on a job,” he reminded him flatly.
“Pfft, more of a hit than an actual job.” Rin scoffed at the idea. “Pops’ and his men have had to gun down countless inexperienced business-y fucks who run out of deals before.”
He kicked a loose shard of gravel into the dark grass as he spoke. “And they always just cower like rats.” The thought made him chuckle a little.
“I guess entrepreneur types in Tokyo are just stupid like that.”
“You forget that appearances are deceiving.” Haru sounded a hundred years wiser as he spoke, still casting wary glances into the shadows surrounding the path. “Not everyone who crosses us is a complete fool.”
He turned his dark blue gaze to Rin, a look that suddenly hardened with concern as he spoke softly. “And Rin, it’s dangerous to think—”
“Dangerous, and stupid, and arrogant, and I oughta pay more attention, and some other dumb shit like that,” Rin mimicked the voice of his father, who Haru sounded so much like right now that it made his eyes water.
“C’mon, babe,” he sighed. “Don’t you think I hear enough of this crap at home?”
Haru kept his gaze on his boyfriend’s exasperated face, his own expression earnest. “He doesn’t tell you these things to annoy you,” he promised. “He just wants you to be safe.”
Rin noticed him grow quiet for a moment before he spoke again, blue eyes turning back up to the path with determination. “And that’s… all I want, too.”
He felt warmth flitter in his chest, and the annoyed look in his pale red eyes melted immediately, giving a soft chuckle. “I know, I know.” He acknowledged tenderly, far more touched by Haru’s concern than his fathers.
“Getting all sappy now, Haru? This is a job, after all.”
Haru gave a delightfully resigned sigh. “Shut up.”
Daringly, Rin reached out a finger to playfully brush it across Haru’s cheek, where he had cute, very vague freckles. “I care about your safety too, y’know.”
His voice had returned to being playful. “More specifically the safety of your face—if you keep it like that too long it might get stuck in that scary glare forever.”
Haru jerked his head away a little, with a softly exasperated huff.
“I’m telling you, Haru, you’re worrying way too much,” Rin pressed him. “Once we actually get in there, you’ll see. Won’t be like anything we haven’t done before.”
Haru seemed unchanged by his boyfriend’s promise, much to Rin’s frustration. “We’ll see,” is all he said. Rin watched him suddenly step off the path and into the tall grass.
He motioned to Rin with the back of his hand. “This way,” Haru’s voice was barely above a murmur. “Sousuke and Makoto are waiting for us behind the target.”
“Ugh,” Rin groaned at the reminder as he followed Haru into the tall grass. “I almost forgot Pops gave this one to Sousuke.”
“Sousuke is an efficient job leader,” Haru murmured over his shoulder as he and Rin moved closely together through the undergrowth. “You just don’t like him because he is strict.”
“He’s just always up my ass, about any wrong move I ever make,” Rin grumbled, before smirking as a naughty thought stirred in the back of his head.
“And if I want anyone up my ass, it’s only you.”
Haru only offered a disappointed exhale in response to the joke, but Rin giggled in the darkness in spite of himself.
“...I’m worried about Makoto,” Haru admitted suddenly, his gaze suddenly downcast to the ground, concealed by grass.
“Ah…” Rin’s playful mood was dissipated immediately by the thought. “He does take hits like these pretty hard, huh?”
“That’s precisely why oyassan assigned him with us,” Haru recalled. “He thinks the exposure will help him…”
Rin watched Haru’s blue gaze briefly lift to the sky, as though searching for something. “But knowing Makoto…” he turned his unusually sensitive gaze back to Rin. “I’m not so sure.”
“Hey, it’ll be fine,” Rin assured him, moving a bit closer to his boyfriend to where their shoulders were touching. “We’ve been looking out for that big guy since we were kids. That hasn’t changed.”
His boyfriend looked at Rin for a moment before finally seeming assured by his words, the smallest smile appearing on his face with a curt nod. “Yeah… you’re right.”
The pair continued their trek through the tall grass in silence, until Rin could see the familiar shape of two large men hiding between two unkempt thickets growing behind the towering steel warehouse above their heads.
Rin could already see Sousuke’s hard teal gaze narrowing in the darkness at their approach. Haru lifted his arm high and made a hand signal, causing the ever-paranoid Sousuke to lower the shape of the machine shotgun he was holding.
The two crept into the thick underbrush under the shadow of the warehouse, where Sousuke stood guard at the metal back entrance. Rin could see Makoto patrolling the area in a straight line, watching warily for any sign of outside interference.
Sousuke greeted them with a small, familiar frown of disapproval. “The two of you are late.”
Haru dipped his head in apology while Rin put his hand on his hip and rolled his eyes. “We had to adjust our route to avoid civilian traffic.” His boyfriend explained.
“You’d bitch about us if we were on time, I bet,” Rin said dryly, only half-teasingly. “Something about being predictable.”
Sousuke gave Haru a curt nod, seemingly satisfied with his explanation before shooting Rin a glare.
“Always a pleasure to be on a job with you, Rin,” Sousuke’s voice was thick with his usual bone-dry sarcasm.
Rin couldn’t resist the playful smirk spreading across his face. “You know you love me.”
The two men held a hard stare, Rin’s eyes glinting impishly until Sousuke finally looked away with a defeated sigh.
Rin caught Haru pacing tightly around the immediate area, eyes surveying the darkness with a flash of anxiety in his blue gaze.
“What’s up, Haru?” Rin tensed, frowning at his boyfriend. “You see something?”
Haru shook his head and turned to speak to Sousuke instead of his partner. “Sousuke, Makoto’s not with you?” His normally-stoic face was taut with concern.
Rin could immediately pick up that despite the assurances shared between each other, Haru was still anxious. He grimaced frustratedly at this realization, wishing his words had more of an effect on his boyfriend.
“He is.” Sousuke cast a glance into the path between two bushes next to him as he explained to Haru calmly. “I have him circling the perimeter to make sure it stays secure.”
“Big guy is already such a nervous wreck about this job, and you make him pace?” Rin crossed his arms and frowned disapprovingly.
“Would you rather I have him stand around fidgeting?” Sousuke returned his friend’s frown. “He needs to get this out of his system. We can’t afford to have him locking up during a hit job.”
“I’ll go get him.” Haru gave a little sigh, urgently slipping past Sousuke and into the underbrush to silently move down the unlit dirt path.
Rin felt a stir of alarm, his glaring match with Sousuke instantly forgotten. “Wait, Haru, I’ll come with you—!”
“No, you won’t.” Sousuke placed a firm hand on Rin’s shoulder to halt the boy in his tracks. “The targets will be alerted for certain with three of you blundering around the perimeter.”
Rin shot a poisonous glare up at his friend’s face, an unreadable expression which looked nothing short of pretentious to Rin. “Did you forget whose son I am?” Rin said in a low growl.
“It’s exactly because I know whose son you are that somebody has to make sure you don’t get yourself killed.” Sousuke’s voice was steely but calm. “Haruka and Makoto, too.”
Rin swiped Sousuke’s arm off him. “That’s exactly why I was going to go protect my boyfriend.” His teeth flashed.
He was already becoming fed-up with Sousuke, who power-tripped over him to get even the slightest hint of approval from his father. The two had been close since they were small, too small to remember, but Sousuke was power-hungry in a way that Rin could sometimes feel driving a wedge between them.
Distracted by thoughts of a lone Haru being ambushed while searching for Makoto, Rin pushed past Sousuke roughly and stalked toward the beaten path. “I'm going with him, he could get jumped—”
“Don’t lose it, Rin,” Haru murmured, using the same tone he normally used on his boyfriend when he grew worked up. “We’re right here.”
He slipped through the underbrush like a liquid shadow right in front of Rin’s face and caused his partner to jump a little in surprise, before relaxing at visible relief at the sight of him.
“There you are.” Rin breathed with just a tiny chuckle.
Behind his boyfriend, there was a much heavier sound of ruffling foliage, a kind of unstealthy footfall Rin could recognize just by hearing it.
Rin felt more relief in his chest as an unharmed, though startled-looking, Makoto practically stumbled out of the underbrush behind Haru, nearly stepping on his best friend’s heels before awkwardly shuffling to stand beside him.
“S-sorry!” Makoto apologized instantly, perhaps louder than he should’ve. He was patting down his excessive body armor and his belt as though worried he had left his own gun behind.
“I-I meant to come back as soon as I went around, bu-but I guess I got lost in thought, and I—”
“It’s fine, Makoto.” Sousuke’s voice softened in such an unnatural way. Rin noticed as Sousuke got older, his voice only ever seemed to soften beyond its authoritative low rumble for Makoto only.
He had to admit, it made him wonder, and he would be lying if he said he hadn’t tried to gossip about it with Haru laying in their bunk at night. If only his boyfriend wasn’t so stuffy about being too good for rumors.
“Is the permitter clear?” Sousuke turned to Haru, addressing him instead of Makoto.
Haru nodded, eyes glinting knowingly. “Not a soul.” The dark-haired man confirmed. “I detected nothing that could indicate our presence is actively known.”
Rin rolled his eyes a little at the robotic way Haru always delivered the report. Would it kill his boyfriend to speak a little less like a search engine while on a job?
Sousuke nodded curtly with satisfaction at Haru’s words. With a motion of his hand, the four men moved towards the entry point, the unattended back double door of the warehouse.
Sousuke and Makoto stood on one side of the entry point, Rin and Haru at the other. Rin’s hand was already eagerly hanging on his gun, and he could feel his boyfriend growing tense with preparation beside him.
Sousuke positioned his machine gun in his hands and held it tightly as he took one final look at their surroundings.
“Let’s review our plan very briefly.” He murmured to his companions, casting a look at each of them.
Makoto looked like he was about to combust, practically hanging on Sousuke’s arm like a frightened schoolgirl as he nodded nervously.
Sousuke’s watchful teal eyes observed their surroundings a final time before speaking. “We will—“
“What’s there to review?” Rin gave a quiet snort of impatience. “It’s a hit, isn’t it? We got in there and we shoot—“
“Not indiscriminately,” Sousuke corrected, eyes hardening as they fell on Rin.
“We are cutting down those responsible for dealing with us, not committing a mass killing.”
Rin returned his glare. “I didn’t say we were, deaf bastard.” He grumbled lowly, under his breath.
“You should move with me. We’ll be more effective in pairs.” Haru suggested, bumping his shoulder gently against Rin to try to quell his temper, and the eager anxiousness he sensed from his boyfriend to get in and start their assault already.
His boyfriend’s voice dropped a little self-consciously. “If you want to, that is…”
Rin’s eyes turned to Haru and glinted sensitively in the dark. “Don’t be stupid,” he huffed bashfully, rubbing his lean shoulder roughly against Haru. “Of course I’ll move with you.”
He moved his face closer to Haru's and gave an impish giggle against his cheek. “After all, we’re a terror when we’re together, Haru.”
Sousuke huffed in sarcastic agreement at Rin’s comment. “Haru is correct, we’re at our most effective in pairs.” He turned and nodded pointedly at Makoto.
“Makoto, you’ll move with me.”
“Y-yes!” Makoto nodded quickly, not needing to be told twice. His nervousness was making his movements look choppy.
His anxious energy was contagious, and Rin was struck with an overwhelming desire to get them in and out quickly, if only to make sure Makoto didn’t need to be here longer than he had too.
“Rin.” Sousuke’s authorative gaze swiveled back to where Rin and Haru stood on the other side of the door, interrupting Rin just seconds before he could start peppering good luck kisses up Haru’s cheek.
“Yeah?” Rin and Haru broke apart, Rin already looking irritated.
“Don’t separate from Haru.” Sousuke commanded calmly, holding Rin’s gaze. “Follow his movements, and do not—“
“Yeah, because I’m an inexperienced brat, yeah?” Rin snapped. “Are you done being a nagging bitch yet, Sousuke?”
Sousuke narrowed his eyes. “I will be, when you start taking our work even a little seriously.”
“Work!” Rin scoffed loudly, maybe a little too loudly, for someone so close to the door. “You kissing my father’s ass is work?”
Makoto looked between Rin and Sousuke, somehow managing to look more afraid of the sudden confrontation than of the impending slaughter.
“Rin…” Haru began with a sigh.
“No. I’m sick of taking this shit from him.” Anger suddenly flared in Rin’s chest as he decided he was fed up completely with Sousuke’s oppressive, father-endorsed method of leadership.
“I’m the boss’ son, not some lackey for you to fuckin’ bully.”
Haru looked exasperated at his boyfriend’s uncontrollable temper flare at such an inopportune time. “Rin, he’s not—“
“Just watch, Sousuke.” Rin’s pale red eyes glinted hungrily, dangerously. “I’ll show you the kind of boss I’ll be.”
Sousuke stiffened, eyes widening in alarm. “Rin, don’t—!”
Without waiting a moment longer, Rin swung his foot forward as hard as he could, black leather boot connecting hard against the middle of the iron double doors.
They rattled inward harshly, flying open and sending a wild draft from the outdoors into the insulated, hot warehouse.
Immediately, Rin could see the men inside scattering, as they shouted a language that he didn’t understand.
It was dark, nearly pitch black, but Rin could see as easily as a predator in the night. It was like he was a cat descending on a nest of vulnerable mice. They scattered all the same.
His heart was wild, hungry, purposed and full of anger. The faceless shapes running from him only made him hungrier, his senses being set on fire with adredaline.
Snapping his gun upward, Rin shot at the ceiling once, if only to stoke his own flame. Swinging his aim downward, he took several indiscrimate shots at the scattering men, not caring one bit who his bullet imbedded into.
This was a den of people related to those that crossed him, and to Rin, they may as well have all been targets.
He felt footsteps thunder behind him as Sousuke and Makoto advanced, Sousuke shouting curses at Rin that he didn’t bother to acknowledge.
All he did acknowledge was Haru; his boyfriend’s brilliant form swiftly bolting to his side, gun drawn and aiming for the first target he recognized.
Rin watched in amazement as Haru fired the first lethal shot with perfected precision, impressive focus on such short notice.
The bullet sliced through the thick air and struck home in the back of the target’s neck. His body crashed hard against a far door as the bullet shattered his neck, just moments before he could open it to escape. He crumpled into a motionless shape into the floor.
More shots rang out from Sousuke as he advanced on more targets he recognized, a panicked Makoto nipping at his heels, breathing hard as he was overwhelmed by the scattering figures all around him.
“Drive them back!” Sousuke’s commanding voice ran out. “Then get out! Rin, Haru, do you hear me?! Get in, get ou—“
Sousuke’s voice was drowned out as Rin sprinted toward the wall, where a cluster of targets and unidentified men alike were hiding. He sprayed bullets into the mass of humans, Haru running and circling tightly around his boyfriend to watch intently for return fire.
“You get the message?! We kill fuckers like you who cross us!” Rin cried triumphantly over the sound of his and Haru’s combined gunfire.
Together, they struck down several fleeing targets, bodies beginning to litter the space close to the exit doors on either side of the warehouse.
The noise of their shots were invigorating to Rin’s ears, and drove him wild with esctacy… so long as it was fired from their direction, rather than towards them.
Rin’s eyes caught a figure in the fray, and the glint of metal as a pistol was drawn on the side opposing them. A bullet richoeted against the ground at their feet.
“Shit.” Rin heard Haru hiss im his ears, his hand tightly gripping his boyfriend’s wrist. “Rin, pull back—!”
Rin met the gunman’s ire-filled gaze with his own fire as he aimed his gun in turn towards him. “Some balls you got, motherfucker, aiming that little thing at me and my partner.”
Rin spat on the ground as he fired, the shot ringing out loudly.
The unexpected assailant avoided Rin’s haphazard spray of bullets at close range, moving with speed like a snake as he advanced toward Rin and Haru.
He fired at them with insidious precision, and Rin’s ears flared as the gunfire rained closely all around them.
Too close.
“Rin—!” Haru gasped out his name as panic for his boyfriend’s sake set in, puncturing his collected and cool demeanor. “RIN!”
The bang reverberated in Rin’s ears just as a heavy weight crashing down on his knees also bought him folding to the ground with a shocked grunt.
He knew who was beside him, who had always been beside him. The only person that close to him, who could only make him fall by falling first.
Haru.
It had all happened so fast. Too fast. One minute Haru had been beside Rin, the place where he belonged, the next, he was sprawled at Rin’s feet. A sickly red puddle was shining on the tip of Rin’s boots.
Haru was inert, curling in on himself at Rin’s feet. His eyes were wide and shocked, an expression on his face that seemed so unlike him, and one that Rin never, ever wanted to see on his face.
A guttural noise left Haru, a noise that made nausea flood Rin’s stomach. His wide blue eyes screwed shut and his body convulsed slightly.
“Haru.” Rin responded instantly, his voice just slightly above a strained whisper. He dropped to his knees at Haru’s side like an anvil, hands instantly grabbing for his boyfriend. “Haru.”
The ensuing gunfire all around them no longer thrilled Rin; it rang hollow in his ears like useless white noise.
The man responsible for the bullet now embedded in Haru crumpled to the ground a distance away, his brain matter streaking the smooth floor after nearly getting decapitated by Sousuke.
He had pummeled lead into the man’s torso, his previous insistence on killing only predetermined targets forgotten as he raged into the remaining stragglers with murderous vengeance.
His death was meaningless to Rin right now. All that mattered was Haru, whose body was shaking and twitching beneath Rin’s hands as he roughly turned his boyfriend onto his back.
“Haru, move your hands.” Rin pleaded through gritted teeth, his fingers trying to pry Haru’s own away from where they tightly clutched his stomach. “Goddammit, Haru, move your—“
Makoto had dispersed from Sousuke the instant his eyes fell on Haru, legs thundering against the ground and rushing to where Haru lay handled roughly in Rin’s arms.
“H—Haru…!” Makoto’s horrified gasp was barely audible. He crashed hard on Haru’s other side, horrified eyes taking in the scene in front of him. “No—no…!”
Rin had finally pried away Haru’s hands, but his rough movements caused a coarse whimper to leave Haru.
“I-I know, baby, I-I’m sorry.” Rin croaked, body beginning to shake as he took in the mess of blood and carnage that made up Haru’s torso. He couldn’t even begin to see the wound.
He sucked in as tears began to spill down his eyes, hands violently shaking as Haru’s blood spilled on them. “I’m—what do I—“
For once, Makoto seemed to take charge of the situation, head rearing upward as he screamed Sousuke’s name.
Sousuke answered Makoto’s cry immediately, abandoning his pursuit of the last stragglers to rush to where Makoto and Rin were gathered tightly around Haru’s body.
“Fuck.” Sousuke snarled instantly, the moment he saw the full scope of Haru’s wounds as he lay there.
“We have to get him out of here— now.”
Sousuke bent down, harshly shoving Makoto out of the way as he took charge of the situation. He scooped Haru up quickly, as gently as he could possibly manage but still earning a strangled whine of pain from Haru.
“B-be careful!” Rin rasped out in a half-sob, stumbling to his feet as Sousuke took Haru from him.
“Shut up!” Sousuke snarled in response. “This didn’t have to happen, goddammit!”
He hauled Haru away, breaking into a run as he began to tear through the massacre in the warehouse.
Makoto followed desperately, but Rin’s legs felt numbed to mush for several seconds more before he too finally followed.
Haru… Haru… no…